Spirited Away 2: An Unforgotten Promise
by can-cer
Summary: 6 years after returning home from the Spirit World, Chihiro finds herself isolated and feels incomplete. She knows what she needs, so she walks through the tunnel one last time.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1.  
><strong>The Unforgotten Promise<strong>

It's been 6 years now since Chihiro left the Spirit World, though she heard nothing from Haku or any of the other spirits just yet, Chihiro still had hopes that she would one day get to see them all again. She frequently returned to the tunnel just down the road from her house. She walked home from school every day and took a shortcut home, which took her past the tunnel that she very often visited. She memorized every step, every rock, and every single marking on the walls. Constantly being let down. '_What was so different that I got through the first time_?'

Chihiro didn't mind school, she had friends, got good grades and she was really quite popular. Because of that, you'd think that she was the happiest girl alive. She lived what seemed to be a normal life for a 16 year old girl. She had family and friends that loved her and most of all, Chihiro was extremely beautiful. She had grown more so into her features, she had long legs and shining long brown hair to match. Her eyes were as big as the sun and glistened like the moon. She always had guys from her school asking her out on dates, but Chihiro's reply was "_I'm in love with somebody else, I'm so sorry." _Unable to tell anyone who it was that she was in love with, Chihiro perpetually found herself writing in her diary about Haku and her adventure in the Spirit World.

As a matter of fact, Chihiro enjoyed writing and being alone opposed to going to parties and get-togethers with her friends. Ever since her time at the bath house, she felt alone and isolated, as if she didn't connect with anybody in the Human World. She constantly found herself sitting in her candle-lit room, listening to soft music and writing in one of her many diaries. She wrote so often that she's used up 5 books in only 6 years. Sometimes she liked to write letters to her friends back in the Spirit World, as if somehow they could read them. She hoped that they could, because she had so much to say. Especially to Haku.

"_Did you forget about our promise? Was what you said just something to make me leave? Was I just some pathetic human whom you crossed paths with by chance? Do you not love me like I love you?" _A small tear drop fell onto the page as Chihiro furiously erased the last sentence from her book. Chihiro didn't like to admit it to herself, but she did indeed love Haku. With all of her heart, she spilled her feelings out on paper that was viewed by her eyes only. Almost every night she dreamt of meeting him for a second time, but at this point, it seemed like in her dreams were as close to Haku as she was ever getting.

Back at the Bath House, things were running smoothly. Yubaba wasn't quite so harsh on her workers. As soon as Sen left, she acknowledged the other employees and all of the constant hard labour that they'd been doing. Lin was promised never to clean the Big bath again, after being pushed to do it so many times. Kamaji and his enchanted soot balls remained humble and loyal to their work with no complaints. Boh was given a train pass and visited his aunt Zeniba every month, with the company of Yu-Bird. Everyone was happy at the Bath House, everyone but Haku.

Haku quit being Yubaba's apprentice but still was Assistant Manager of the Bath House. He often did rounds and checked on the employees and their customers, making sure everything was going well and that the spirits were happy and relaxed. The odd time there were some miscommunications and unhappy customers, but Haku quickly resolved all problems and everything was back to as it should be.

He found himself thinking of Chihiro more often than he had thought possible, she was in his dreams and he saw her face every time he closed his eyes. Haku had never been in love or really paid any attention to girls, even though he was a teenage boy. In reality, Haku was really thousands of years old. All of the spirits in the bath house were, even Boh. Spirits are immortal and have the ability to choose which age they physically appear. Haku's physical form was that of a 19 year old boy, 2 years older than Chihiro. But since having met Chihiro, Haku decided that he was going to age along with her.

Haku, too felt alone and isolated, much like Chihiro. He wondered how things were going for her. Sometimes he even asked himself, "_Does she even remember me?"_ Little did he know, she did. She remembered everything about Haku. His scent, what it felt like riding on his back while in dragon form, the feel of his scales, and even his first words to her. Though they weren't exactly what you'd call _kind_ words, he was looking out for her and trying to protect her. He always was. '_You shouldn't be here, Get out of here. NOW!_' He too remembered.

Haku hated himself because he wasn't there to protect Chihiro anymore. Though she was much safer in her own world with her family and friends, he always wished that one day he would be walking across the bridge and find her there, looking off into the distance. During the day time, he often walked to the tunnel. He'd even try walking through it, but at the end, staring back at him was just a large stone wall. One day he'd see her again. He knew he would, he had to. He promised.

_-Just go back the way you came, you'll be fine. But you have to promise not to look back. Not until you've passed through the tunnel.  
>-What about you? What will you do?<br>-Don't worry, I'll go back and have a talk with Yubaba. I'll tell her I'm going to quit being her apprentice. I'm fine, I got my name back.  
>-Will we meet again some time?<br>-I'm sure we will.  
>-Promise?<br>-I Promise. Now go, and don't look back._

And she didn't. Haku knew that it was best for the both of them if Chihiro didn't look behind her, but a small part of him wishes she had. He just wanted to see her face again, just for one last time.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

"Chihiro! Get out of bed, it's 7:15! You're going to be late if you don't hurry up!" Chihiro practically jumped out of her skin when she heard her mother from down the hall. She normally starts walking to school at 7:45. She threw off her covers and ran to the bathroom. "I'm up! My alarm didn't go off!" she yelled to her mother with a mouth full of toothpaste. She heard a door slam, her dad had just left for work. Once she was done brushing her teeth, Chihiro ran back to her room, rummaged through her cabinets and found a clean uniform to put on for school. She grabbed her backpack and almost ran out of the door when she remembered to fix her hair. She walked over to her night stand and grabbed a sparkly purple hair band, gathered all of her hair and twisted the band twice around it. This hair band was very special to her, her friends made it. Yu-Bird, No-Face, Boh and Zeniba all helped.

"Chihiro I'm leaving, have a good day at school!" her mother yelled-the door slammed again. Chihiro jumped and snapped out of her trance-like train of thought. This seemed to happen to her quite often, she couldn't control it most of the time either. Everything related to the Spirit World gave an eerie sort of feeling whenever she thought about it. Even so, she missed it more than anything.

As she started walking out the door, she tripped. Chihiro leaned forward and picked up what looked to be one of her finished diaries. "W-W-W-W-WHAT? How did this get downstairs?" Her jaw fell to the floor as she checked to see if the lock was still intact. It was. Chihiro let out a huge sigh of relief as she ran back upstairs to put her journal back in the shoe box under her bed, joining many others.

She was taking the short cut to school like she normally did, but this time it was different. She walked down the hill from her house like usual, but when she went to walk past the tunnel that she had became so familiar with, a huge sudden gust of wind flew past her and towards the mysterious tunnel, as if it was trying to pull her in. The unusual change in climate startled her and she dropped one of her books. As she kneeled down to pick it back up, another gust of wind flew past her and the tunnel started making an extraordinarily loud moaning sound. She'd heard this sound before.

Being the bold and curious girl she is, Chihiro started walking towards the entrance of the tunnel, like she had a thousand times. As she proceeded, she realized that something was different. She could see daylight from inside. The stone wall that was normally at the end had disappeared or had been knocked down. "_Some builders probably found this place and started to tear it down", _she mumbled to herself. She got to the chapel-like room and felt almost at home. Not paying any attention to the seemed to be knocked down wall on the other end of the room, Chihiro checked her cell phone that she had just felt vibrate inside her bag.

"**Where are you, Chihiro? You're half an hour late! Classes already started!**" –Akira

Akira was one of Chihiro's many friends that she met at school. They met on the first day of the 9th grade. Chihiro was rummaging through her bag, looking for the slip of paper with her locker combination when she ran straight into Akira! Ever since, they've been inseparable.

"Shoot! I'm late! I haven't been here that long, have I?" Chihiro scolded to herself as she smacked her forehead.

Just as she was texting her friend back, Chihiro's phone lost service. "Dang. And no service either. Great." She was tucking her phone back away into her bag as she heard that same distinct moaning coming from all 4 walls around her. That same wind pushed past her and towards the "invisible" stone wall. It startled Chihiro, but she didn't do anything other than look ahead of her and sigh. 'School can wait.' She thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

The light from outside creeped up closer as Chihiro slowly walked forward, not knowing what to expect. 'Better not get my hopes up' she thought. 'I've come here way too many times to expect anything different to happen.' But it did just that. She got to the doorway and looked outward to see beautiful grassy fields, followed what looked to be an unfinished river. The river was full of large rocks, big enough to climb on. Even farther, Chihiro looked and saw what seemed to be rows of old restaurants. This was it. She was home.

Chihiro finally realized what was happening and she started running as fast as she could towards the riverbed, skipping and smiling so big that her cheeks could burst."IS THIS IT? AM I REALLY BACK? AM I DREAMING?" she asked herself. Chihiro had never felt this much joy in her entire life. She pinched her own cheeks to reassure herself that she in fact, was not dreaming. It was all real. She wasn't sure how she got back, but right now it didn't matter. She needed to get back to the Bath House and find Haku. She waited too long for this moment. Too many times had she came back to that same tunnel, expecting a warm welcome back to the Spirit World, only to find a cold wall in her way of freedom.

She slowed down and started walking nervously as she approached the strip of food shacks. The food smelled so good and she was starving, since she woke up late she was forced to skip breakfast. Suddenly, she snapped out of her pig-like thinking and kept walking forward towards the statue that stood just to the left of the grand red bridge leading to the Bath House. She started walking up the stairs and then a thought came to her mind, '_What if nobody remembers me? It was 6 years ago. Maybe they all moved on.. Humans probably wander here all the time._' Then she remembered what had happened to her parents. "**That's where all of the pigs come from!**" she said out loud. She covered her mouth in shock, looking around to see if anybody had heard her. Nobody was outside, how foolish of her to think that anyone would have been listening. The spirits didn't come out until the lanterns were lit at night. Chihiro then giggled to herself.

Chihiro was almost at the statue up the stairs, when she heard a familiar voice call out from behind her. She knew this voice from somewhere; she heard it in her dreams very often.

"I knew you'd find a way back eventually."

Chihiro gasped and turned around as fast as she could, she froze. It was Haku. The boy she had been thinking, writing and dreaming about for the past 6 years was standing maybe 10 feet away from her. All she wanted to do was to run into his arms, and stay there forever. But she didn't know if he felt the same, so instead, Chihiro approached with caution.

"H-H-Haku?, is that you?" she timidly asked.

"Yes Chihiro, it's me." He replied with a chuckle, "You've grown up a lot. You're beautiful."

Chihiro tried to hide her face from Haku so he couldn't see her blushing, but he noticed anyways. "T-thank you, you're quite handsome, too, Haku."

He smiled and started walking towards her slowly, unsure of how she would react. It had been a while since they'd last seen each other. Anything could have happened and he would have had no idea.

"Chihiro?" Haku called. "Please forgive me. I would have come to see you sooner, but I walked to that tunnel countless times only to find a wall in my way. Tell me, how did you manage to get through this time?" he wondered, gazing at her.

"W-Well.. I was walking to school actually, and I felt it. I felt the gate to your world being opened. It's like it called my name almost and told me to go inside. The wall wasn't there this time. I'd tried coming back many times, too. Believe me. I've come to the tunnel hoping for some sort of sign from you, or any of the spirits here that you even exist. I was really starting to doubt my sanity!" she giggled to herself, Haku joined her.

"Because I had no proof other than the hair band that Granny gave me, I really had no idea if I just made everything about this world up. It was beginning to scare me; this past week has been especially hard." She looked up into his eyes; they were the same emerald green as she remembered. "But I'm here now" she continued, "and you have no idea how happy I am to see you." She gave him a smile that somehow said '_I've always loved you." _Could he see it? If only Haku could read her mind.

'_She's so beautiful. I missed her so much'_ Haku thought to himself. '_I wish I could tell her exactly how I've always felt about her._.'

"And it's strange, I felt so empty back at home" she adds, "I didn't really feel as if I fit in with the people at my school, work, or even in my family. But when I'm here, it's different. I feel like I am truly at home here, and I wish to stay." She told Haku.

Haku felt his heart drop. "You wish to STAY? HERE?" he asked quite bluntly. "Forever?"

Chihiro looked at him with an upset sort of gaze, "Am I not allowed?"

Haku straightened himself up, cleared his throat and replied, "Well, I'm sure everyone here would be along with it, but what about schooling? What about your family and your friends? They would miss you terribly. They'd probably throw fits if they didn't know where you are."

Chihiro put her head down in shame, "I don't think they would miss me that much."

"Don't say that, I bet they would. Anyone would. You're amazing, Chihiro. Don't ever forget that." He told her, as he grabbed her hand.

She looked into his eyes and he smiled the most perfect smile that anyone could ever imagine.

"Now let's go, we've got some catching up to do and I have to tell everyone that you've come back! Lin will be very happy to hear the news."


End file.
